Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Slim Came Out Of The Shade
Now I'm not the biggest Eminem fan in the world. To be honest, I think he is pretty overrated, and I have stated as much before. That being said, he is starting to win me over. He has just released a scathing rant against George Bush that shocked me by its forcefulness entitled Mosh. At one point in the song, Eminem actually refers to Bush as a "weapon of mass destruction." Obviously, his irreverence is in full force.
Juan Cole had this to say about the politicization of Slim Shady:
Amidst a listing of empirical evidence, Publius at Legal Fiction indulges in a little faith-based analysis of why he believes Kerry will prevail one week from today:
[Hat tip to reader D-Wall]
Juan Cole had this to say about the politicization of Slim Shady:
I don't know what Marshall Mathers's politics are. But I do know that they could be of consequence for the youth vote, and his loud pleas for everyone to vote may also have an impact at the margins (this election is about the margins).What's more, the imagery in the video is almost as strident as the lyrical content. You can watch the video and hear the song here (note: it takes a while to download because of the richness of the media). This represents yet one more reason why the youth vote will turn out for Kerry.
That he is issuing a song, Mosh, which directly attacks Bush on the Iraq war may be a sign of the times:
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell/In a forthcoming Rolling Stone interview, Mathers says:
We gonna let him know/
Stomp, push, shove, mush, fuck Bush!/
Until they bring our troops home...
Let the president answer on higher anarchy/
Strap him with an AK-47, let him go fight his own war/
Let him impress daddy that way...No more blood for oil.
"[Bush] has been painted to be this hero, and he's got our troops over there dying for no reason...I think he started a mess...He jumped the gun, and he fucked up so bad he doesn't know what to do right now...We got young people over there dyin', kids in their teens, early twenties that should have futures ahead of them. And for what? It seems like a Vietnam 2. Bin Laden attacked us, and we attacked Saddam. Explain why that is. Give us some answers."
Amidst a listing of empirical evidence, Publius at Legal Fiction indulges in a little faith-based analysis of why he believes Kerry will prevail one week from today:
But the real reason I'm increasingly confident has nothing to do with the polls or Electoral College calculations. If you'll allow me to step outside the reality-based community for a moment, I want to share with you my "hunch." And I learned it from my father.I share his hunch. It sure looks like Marshall Mathers is angry, and if there really are a million Slim Shadys just like him....
My father has been a local elected official (Republican, though) in my hometown for over thirty years. Perhaps I'm biased, but I consider him a political genius at reading people and assessing the mood of the man on the street. And he once taught me an important political lesson - an angry man always votes. He explained, "It doesn't matter if it's raining or snowing. If they're pissed off at you, they'll always go vote against you." I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. Just look at 1994, or the 1998 secular backlash in the midterm elections. Angry people turn out.
[Hat tip to reader D-Wall]
